This is my look at the Rock
Island in Arkansas. Even though it has been nearly 30 years since the
bankrupt railroad was shut down, there are still a lot of remnants throughout
the state. I've included photos of many of those sites. I've also made
an effort to interview people who worked for the Rock Island in Arkansas,
with MP3 files of their stories available for download. They share what
it was like working for this once great railroad, as well as the steady
decline in its final years. It was hard work. I hope to add more interviews
in the future. There are also links to other web sites with related
material. For anyone who doesn't know the history of the Rock Island,
Wikipedia
has an interesting profile, which is a good starting place for anyone
wanting to learn more.

MOST RECENTLY ADDED (05/24/09):

ARKANSAS
RIVER TRAIL: In this story for KUAR, aired May 22, 2009, I looked
at efforts to expand and improve the 14-mile walking and biking trail
along the Arkansas River in Little Rock and North Little Rock. The Rock
Island Bridge, which is now part of the Clinton Presidential Library,
has long been slated to be the eastern end of the loop, but the cost
of renovated it -- expected to be about $10 million dollars -- has kept
work from beginning. A local bicycle advocacy group has been meeting
with the Clinton Foundation and representatives of both cities, to pressure
them into completing the project. Click on the link above to hear my
radio report and see a slide show of photos of the trail, including
a couple of recent shots of the bridge.

ROCK
ISLAND PARKWAY: I produced a story for KUAR-FM 89.1 in Little Rock,
aired May 8, 2009, about a plan being considered to build a highway
over the Rock Island's former track bed through Saline County. But plenty
of residents who live alongside it are opposing the plan. Click on the
link above to listen to my report and see a slide show of photos.

15 black and white images, taken in the late 1980's
to mid-90's, of the century old Rock Island Bridge, spanning the Arkansas
River at Little Rock. At that time the bridge and nearby depot were
abandoned and decaying. In fact at one point there was a plan by Union
Pacific, which had acquired the bridge, for it to be dismantled. But
fortunately it and the depot have been preserved as part of the Clinton
Presidential Library, which was built on the grounds of this former
railroad complex. Also included are 10 recent images taken on a foggy
day.

They may not have tracks beside them anymore, but there
are plenty of old Rock Island depots still standing in Arkansas. While
many were in terrible shape just a few years ago, most have been restored
and are beautiful relics of a long gone era. In this section you can
see classic images of some of the depots, along with photos that I've
taken in recent years. I also include old trackage and other remnants
where the railroad ran through Arkansas. There are also photos of two
short-line railroads now operating on old Rock Island tracks.

42 images of this Rock Island caboose, which was built
in 1930 and ran for 50 years before the railroad was shut down. My family
purchased it in 2003, after it had sat practically abandoned for two
decades beside a house near Pinnacle Mountain, outside of Little Rock.
We replaced the roof and did other work on the caboose, but ended up
having to leave it on the hilltop property when my parents sold their
home there. Here you can view images of the caboose when we bought it
and the extensive efforts that it took to move it.

My small collection of Rock Island postcards from Arkansas.
The first several are from the early 1900's, with two showing the Little
Rock bridge, two of the Little Rock depot and one of the Rock Island's
track west of Little Rock, where it parallels the Arkansas River. There
are also five postcards showing other deports in Arkansas, photographed
from the 1960's through the 80's, including North Little Rock (Argenta),
Lonoke, Carlisle, Hazen and Booneville.

While researching a high school paper on the railroad
in 1988, I recorded an interview with L.T.
Walker, who worked as a conductor and had retired a decade earlier.
I found his incredibly vivid stories so fascinating that in recent years
I've been seeking out more Rock Island employees to record their stories,
which you can download here as MP3 files. I've also spoken with Joe
Rook, who worked as a conductor before the railroad shut down, and
Al Dodson, who was the Rock Island's
union representative. They all weave together great, first hand accounts
of the Rock Island's final years.

ROCK ISLAND AND OTHER TRAIN-RELATED LINKS:

-Raymond Van Hook shared his Rock
Island Recollections with me, writing about what it was like growing
up alongside the tracks of the Rock Island in Howe, Oklahoma, just west
of the Arkansas boarder in the 1940s and '50s. This was part of the
main line between Memphis and Tucumcari, New Mexico.

-Minnesota
Public Radio produced an incredible documentary on the history of
the song "Rock Island Line," a folk song that, as explained
here, was first documented in a Little Rock, Arkansas prison in 1934.
The entire radio program can be listened to on this web site.

-Here's an interesting site focusing on the Choctaw
Freight Terminal in Little Rock, which would become the Rock Island's,
situated on the opposite side of the tracks from the railroad's Little
Rock depot. Sadly the century-old structure was destroyed in November
2001 to make way for the Clinton Presidential Library. At least the
passenger depot and Arkansas River bridge are being preserved. See some
great photos of Rock Island sites in Little Rock on this page.

-Ken Ziegenbein of North Little Rock hosts Ken's
Weather and Railroad, which includes lots of information and constantly
updated photos of trains and sites around Arkansas. Many Rock Island
items, along with an online version of his monthly publication Arkansas
Railroader.

-The Rock
Island Technical Society has a detailed site that has equipment
rosters, including the locations of all known Rock Island cabooses,
photos and lots of great historical items.

-A really great, professionally maintained site is
RailPictures.net, which features
photos of practically every railroad, including plenty of "fallen
flags" like the Rock Island. Plenty of photos are added every day,
so it seems there are always new images to look at.

-A good source for official railroad information is
the Federal Railroad Administration
site. Here you can do searches, read different reports are railroading
and see official information about Amtrak.

I am not directly associated with any of these sites.
If any of these links no longer work, please let me know! Also if you
know of any sites with Rock Island-related content, also please shoot
me an email.